Written Answers Monday 11 October 2010

Scottish Executive

Health

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many new fast-track diagnostic and treatment centres there have been in the NHS in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: The information requested is not available centrally.

  The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS Scotland to provide a high quality of care which is quick and safe. For example, last year two £100 million new hospitals were opened at Stobhill and the Victoria in Glasgow which have redesigned their services around the needs of the patient to enhance the quality of care and speed up diagnosis and treatment.

  As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to reduce waiting times, the Health Delivery Directorate’s Improvement Support Team continues to work with all NHS boards to redesign and transform services across Scotland to improve access through all stages of the patient pathway. This work aims to help all NHS boards to deliver the 18 weeks referral to treatment time target that is due to be delivered by end of December 2011.

  The latest published figures for 30 June 2010 showed that patients are effectively receiving an outpatient consultation within 12 weeks, key diagnostic tests within four weeks and inpatient and day case treatment within nine weeks. This clearly shows that patients across Scotland are now experiencing shorter waits for outpatient consultations, tests and treatment.

Health

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what incentives have been put in place to encourage people to train in rural medicine and work in rural areas since May 2007.

Nicola Sturgeon: Following evaluation of choices made by medical trainees, NHS Education for Scotland has developed a refreshed marketing strategy to attract medical trainees to remote and rural areas of Scotland.

  Through year-on-year increases in resource allocations to NHS boards, the Scottish Government has maintained the financial incentives scheme available to support recruitment of GPs in remote and rural and deprived areas, where every GP taking up post is awarded a supplementary payment of £5,000. All doctors who work in the Scottish islands continue to be entitled to receive the Scottish Distant Islands Allowance.

Student Finance

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how much was invested in providing (a) Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) weekly payments and (b) EMA bonuses to college students in each of the last five years.

Keith Brown: The table below details the amounts invested in providing Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) in (a) weekly payments and (b) bonuses to college students over the last five academic years for which published figures are available.

  

Year
Budget 
£ Million
Weekly Payments
Bonus Payments
Total


2004-05
20.1
£2,040,260
£615,000
£2,655,260


2005-06
29.4
£5,632,040
£897,450
£6,529,490


2006-07
37.1
£7,455,005
£2,054,700
£9,509,705


2007-08
31.5
£7,602,690
£2,200,650
£9,803,340


2008-09
36.7
£8,782,940
£2,476,200
£11,259,140



  Notes:

  1. The method of collecting and collating EMA data has been improved continually over the years of operation of the scheme. Care must therefore be taken when making comparisons between data from the first two years of operation (2004-05 and 2005-06) and that from later years.

  2. The academic year 2008-09 is the latest complete academic year for which published information on EMA is available. Statistics for academic year 2009-10 will be published at the end of the year.